The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-12-03
River and Harbor Appropriations.

River and Harbor Appropriations
Representative Norwood, i'll an Interview
in the MORNING NEWS yesterday, states
that in his opinion the Appropriation for
| Savannah harbor in the next river and har-
Dor bill will be larger than the last ore,
but that il viii not be twice as large he
gives two reasons for this opinion. One IS
that the Democrats will he as economical as
possible in making appropriations this win
ter, because they want to go before the
! people in the next Presidential campaign
with record for economy, and the other is
that the members from districts which re-
! ceive very little direct benefit from the
river and harbor bill will oppose it with the
hope of making political capital for them
selves.
| There is no doubt q great deal OF truth
in what Mr.. Norwood says, but the friends
in Congress of rivers and harbors ought to
be able to do more for the great public in
terests which they represent than what he
| seems to think they can. 1t requires very
persistent and skillful work to get anything
from Congress, and that is the kind of work
which the people who are interested in
rivers and harbors expect from their repre-
Sentatives
The last river and harbor bill did not be-
come law, as Mr.. Norwood points out,
through the failure to get it to the Presi-
dent in time for his signature. If the
friends of the bill had been little more
energetic it might not have failed, although
it is difficult to place the blame just where
it belongs. The failure of the bill, however,
has resulted in an immense amount of dam
age to river and harbor improvements 1t
will take a very large part of the next
river and harbor appropriations to restore
these improvements to the condition in
which they were when work on them ceased
for want of money to continue it,
The Democratic party may want to have
a record for economy, but it will find it diff
ficult to convince the country that it is
economy to permit public improvements to
be abandoned for year or more although
the Treasury is so full OF money that it is
problem to know what to do with it. If
the Treasury were empty, the country
poor, and taxes high, the people
would not grumble if their
rivers and harbors, upon which TO a large
extent their commerce depends, were not
improved as fast as they would like to have
them, but they have no sympathy with
demagogiSm-for it is demagogisn, to
lock up hundreds of millions of dollars in
the Treasury, and let public works go to
ruin and great commercial interests suffer
for no other reason than to be- able to say
that the expenses of running the government
have been small. Economy does not consist
in small expenditures, but in spending
money judiciously, and getting all that can
be obtained for it.
If Savannah harbor does not get more
than double the amount it received in the
last river and harbor bill, work on the i'm
provements to secure either the twenty-five
foot or the twenty-eight foot channel will
not proceed very rapidly. In fact, the
amount which Mr.. Norwood thinks the
harbor will get in the next bill will not be
more than enough to complete the improve
ment for the twenty-five foot channel
The people interested directly in the i'm
provement of rivers and harbors are alto
gether too timid in making known to Con-
gress their wishes. If they were a little
more aggressive and persistent more atten-
ton would be paid to their wants and wishes